Republicans Upset Over Video on How to Hire Cheap Immigrant Labor

WASHINGTON – Some Republicans want to get rid of a grainy, bootleg video posted on a popular site that gives employers advice for how to avoid hiring U.S. workers over cheaper foreign labor.

Employers are shown legal hurdles as they pursue foreign workers at an employment seminar conducted by the Pittsburgh-based law firm of Cohen and Grigsby.

"Our goal here, of course, is to meet the requirements, do so as inexpensively as possible, keeping in mind our goal: our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker," said Lawrence Lebowitz, vice president of marketing at Cohen and Grigsby, in the video posted on YouTube. "In a sense, that sounds funny."

Rep. Brian Bilbray (search), R-Calif., called the seminar an abuse of the law.

"This is a kind of abuse of the law that makes people so skeptical about so many of our immigration laws," Bilbray said. "And frankly, if they're openly saying that they have no intention of hiring American citizens at the first crack of employment, frankly, I think that's crossing the line."

Two other Republicans, Sen. Charles Grassley (search) of Iowa and Rep. Lamar Smith (search) of Texas wrote to the law firm to complain.

"We would like you to explain how this practice does not constitute outright discrimination based on nationality and why your firm so blatantly promotes this type of behavior," according to their letter.

The law firm advises clients on the use of a legal work visa for high-skilled foreign labor.

Critics of those visas say they cost U.S. workers jobs and benefits, often cited by computer programmers.

The video teaches employers how to dodge requirements to advertise job openings and discard resumes from qualified U.S. workers.

"We're not going to try to find a place where the applicants going to be the most numerous, we're going to try to find a place where, again, we're complying with the law and hoping, and likely not to find qualified and interested worker applicants," Lebowitz said.

The law firm stands by the seminar, saying its advice complies with federal immigration and labor law.

"We regret the choice of words that was used during a small segment of the seminar," according to a statement released by Cohen and Grigsby. "It is unfortunate that these statements have been commandeered and misused, which runs contrary to our intent."